SQL Server - What is page splits?

What is page splits? How many page splits is too many? What can I do to help
reduce them?

A page is 8Kb of data which can be related to an index, data, lob’s etc. When we
INSERT data in a table, they go on a page (into slots). Based on row length, a
number of rows can be stored on a 8kb page. If the row length increases (longer
data value), SQL Server will move the other rows in the page to accommodate the
change. If the page turns out to be small for all these rows, then SQL Server
grabs another new page and moves rows to the left/right of the modification
onto it. This is termed as a page split.

One can reduce the number of page splits by setting the appropriate fill factor
option to reserve free space on each index page. The fill factor ranges from 1
to 100 specifying the percentage of the index page to be left empty. If a table
contains read only data, set fill factor to 100. When a table’s modified often,
set its fill factor to 70. Following this we can know how many page splits is
too many.

What is page splits? How many page splits is too many? What can I do to help
reduce them?

Page splits are performed when there is no space in a data page to accommodate
more inserts or updates. In a page spilt, SQL server removes some data from the
current data page and moves it to another data page. This is done in order to
make space for the new rows.

Too many page splits can decrease the performance of the SQL server because of
the large number of I/O operations. Number of page splits can be observed by
using the Performance Monitor and watch the SQLServer:Access Methods:Page
Splits/sec counter. Following remedies can be taken to avoid too many page
splits:-

Rebuild indexes frequently to empty the fillfactor space for more data.

What is page splits? How many page splits is too many? what can I do to help
reduce them?

A page split occurs when there is no enough space left to perform an INSERT in
the available memory/space.

In this case the SQL Server also needs to updae the indexes related to the
queries depending on the page splits.

The SQL Servers performance is affected if there are a lot of page splits. Te
factors that affect the number of page splits are:
1. Number of users
2. Level of user activity
3. The frequency of the rebuild of indexes
4. The primary key being a clustered index
5. The performance of your I/O subsystem
6. Read or write operations
7. The fill-factor used in table indexes

Performance Monitor can be used to watch the SQLServer:Access Methods:Page
Splits/sec counter.

Answer - Shared Lock allows simultaneous
access of record by multiple Select statements. Shared Lock blocks record from
updating and will remain in queue waiting while record is accessed for
reading......